The Golden State Warriors steamrolled their way through the regular season, then became the first team in league history to enter the NBA playoffs 12-0 and the first team in playoff history to win 15 straight games. They lost just one game to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals, giving Golden State the best postseason record in NBA history (16-1).

That resume helps make them the best team the NBA has ever seen, but historical trends for so-called super teams show it’s likely they could be even better next season.

When LeBron James took his talents to South Beach in 2010 to create the league’s first “Big Three” with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, the Miami Heat experienced some growing pains at the start. They recovered, and finished the regular season with the league’s highest net rating (plus-8.5) yet ultimately fell to the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals. Miami would win back-to-back titles over the next two seasons, and see their shooting peak during the last two years with James on the roster, posting effective field goal percentages (eFG%), which accounts for three-point shots being worth one more than a two-point attempt, of 55.2 and 55.4 percent in 2012-13 and 2013-14, respectively. The quick lesson? The team improved as their familiarity increased.

A similar improvement followed James to Cleveland, when he rejoined his original team in the summer of 2014. The year before his (second) arrival, the Cavaliers had an effective field goal percentage of 47.9 percent, a rate that was below average. In the three years since, the team’s shooting efficiency improved every single year, making them the second-best shooting team in the NBA last season.

Before the Warriors added Kevin Durant, a former regular-season MVP, to the roster, the Warriors set a record for effective field goal percentage (56.3 percent). That remained steady with Durant in the fold, allowing Golden State to outscore opponents by 12.1 net points per 100 possessions, making them the most dominant team in the NBA last season.

And now that Durant has a full season with the team, he may become even more comfortable in his surroundings, especially if two-time reigning MVP Steph Curry continues to adapt his game to accommodate him.

Ronald Martinez, Getty Images

Kevin Durant #35 of the Golden State Warriors reacts late in the fourth quarter against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 3 of the 2017 NBA Finals at Quicken Loans Arena on June 7, 2017 in Cleveland, Ohio.

Curry touched the ball less this season (78.6) compared to 2015-16 (85.9) and made two fewer shot attempts per game during the regular season, yet the five-man lineup of Curry, Durant, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and Zaza Pachulia outscored opponents by 24.1 net points per 100 possessions when they shared the court, the highest among five-man lineups playing at least 250 minutes together during the regular season. Their effective field goal percentage was also 11 percentage points higher than their eFG% allowed. That’s a greater difference between the best (Warriors) and worst (Chicago Bulls, 48.7 eFG%) shooting teams from last season.

Golden State already found a way to take its shooting to another level in the playoffs. The Warriors had their worst shooting performance of the playoffs during their second-round sweep of the Utah Jazz, posting an effective field goal percentage of 54.5 percent, but that was with Curry playing just 4.6 minutes per game in the fourth quarter as he was largely unneeded during the sweep. The Warriors’ best shooting performance came in the Western Conference Finals against the San Antonio Spurs, where Golden State had an effective field goal percentage of 61.8 percent and decimated the Spurs by 15.5 net points per 100 possessions. That series was largely played without Kawhi Leonard, a two-time Defensive Player of the Year, but it certainly gave a glimpse of what could happen against the Warriors when an opponent isn’t at the top of their game.

“In our system, we can make it even easier for him,” the Warriors’ Andre Iguodala said after Game 5. “Just as easy as he makes it for us. We definitely we feel like we can play even better. We can take it to another level, and that’s what we’re trying to do. I personally, we feel this team, we have another level.”

And the possibility of that improving should scare the pants off the rest of the NBA.

In a fresh episode of the Nuggets Ink Podcast, Gina Mizell and Nick Kosmider talk about a crushing loss for the Nuggets in Los Angeles, the team's bench struggles, the brutal Western Conference and whether the Nuggets have run out of time in the quest for the postseason.